OUT COME THE WOLVES: 2 ½ STARS. “Who’s afraid of the metaphorical big, bad wolf?”
SYNOPSIS: In “Out Come the Wolves,” a new survival drama now playing in select theatres and day-and-date on VOD/Digital, Sophie (Missy Peregrym) chooses a hunting trip at a remote cabin in the woods, to introduce her childhood best friend Kyle (Joris Jarsky) to fiancé Nolan (Damon Runyan). The idea is to for Kyle to teach Nolan how to hunt for an article he’s writing, but jealous tension hangs in the air. When the two men are ambushed by a ferocious wolf pack, Sophie must rely on her hunting prowess to come to the rescue.
CAST: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan. Directed by Adam MacDonald.
REVIEW: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Well, in “Out Comes the Wolves,” Sophie, Kyle and Nolan are, but the biggest threat isn’t the wolves. This a survival film, but the animals, despite their lupine snarls, fierce presence and taste for humans, are symbolic predators.
The real threat here is human nature. The specter of jealousy hangs over this trio’s interactions like a shroud—“He’s not the one for you,” Kyle says about Nolan—infecting their behavior, leading to tragedy.
That’s the metaphorical big, bad wolf.
The actual wolves provide the bite, quite literally, but “Out Come the Wolves” works best when it concentrates on the interpersonal dynamics. When Kyle reminds Sophie they once made a deal to marry if they weren’t otherwise engaged by age forty, she snorts, “Weren’t we, like twelve?” not realizing that, for him, it was more than just a childhood joke. It opens a discussion about “real” predators, who, as Kyle states, “are fascinating. They see an opportunity and they take it.”
When the movie moves away from the true nature of, well, nature, human and otherwise—“In nature,” Kyle says, “what you see is what you get.”—it becomes more visceral, but less interesting.
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